Ola Olukoyede, Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has blamed the neglect of cultural values for the high rate of corruption in the country.
He said this on Tuesday when Chief Biodun Ajiboye, Executive Secretary of the National Institute for Cultural Orientation, NICO, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja.
The visit was to discuss inter-agency collaborations towards re-orienting Nigerians on the need to revive their cultural values as a tool to fight and eradicate corruption in the country.
In a statement issued by Mr Caleb Nor, media aide to Ajiboye, Olukeyede said that the commission was doing its best to curb the menace of corruption to a reasonable level.
Olukoyede said one of the ways to achieve the EFCC mandate was through citizens’ reorientation to stem the tide of high-level moral decadence and restore cultural values that were completely broken.
“What does not belong to you, you don’t have business with it and if we have moral and value re-orientation of the citizenry, it will help us achieve a lot.
“We need to channel our efforts towards crime prevention rather than recording thousands of convictions.
“There is also a need for us to look at the loopholes and re-orient the people and that is where NICO comes in. We need people like you to support us by getting involved in the fight against corruption.
“Basic orientation is needed for Nigerians to understand the need to avoid engagements in criminal vices and we will not mind to give your institute a desk in the commission to see how we can join forces in re-orienting Nigerians.
“Because if we go back to our values and with the potency it has to take away the issue of moral decadence, I can assure you that it will reduce the bulk of my work,” he said.